by Anthony Beevor (link)
I had read Stalingrad and Berlin by Anthony Beevor before and had been very impressed. I picked up this book hoping to find out some detail on a war I knew next to nothing about, other than the broadest outline. With that aim in my this was an extremely good book for me to buy and read. However, compared to those other two works this book is a lesser creature, for reasons I'll examine in a bit.
First however, this book is a very good overview of the Spanish Civil War. In the first chapters Anthony Beevor goes through the long and short term causes of the Civil War, in more and more detail the closer the tale comes to 1936. Once the war breaks out with the military coup he tells the tale as a story of the various offensive operations by either side. Interspersing this largely chronological narrative are chapters looking at other aspects of the war: the diplomatic side of things in Europe, the internal politics of both proto-states. He pays particular attention on the Republican side to the acitivities of the Communists. He is equally condemnatory of both sides when it comes to atrocities and massacres, and evinces very little sympathy for either the Nationalists or the Republicans. As a book it does not get lost in detail, and rarely spends more than a few pages over any one particular event. The result is you get a true overview: exactly, in other words, what I needed. A general work of reference that will allow me to place details in context as and when I come across them.
Therein, I think, is its weakness compared to the other two works. For me the high-point of this book as an exercise in reading was the chapter devoted to the failed coup itself, those critically important few days in the summer of 1936. That chapter reminds me more of his earlier work and it is no surprise, it is really the only time when this tale achieves a level of detail and concentration that is obvious in the other works.
In Stalingrad the book is focused the on a single place, in a relatively short timespan. Once the intial introductory chapters are dealt with, the action is entirely centred on Stalingrad. That initial passage takes about 80 pages or so, and by that point there are still about 350 pages to go. Likewise in terms of time, those initial patches sketch out the German campaign in the East in 1941 and early 1942, and in doing so introduce the main characters (such as General Paulus) who will figure in the story. The bulk of the book concentrates on just six of seven months of terrible conflict.
Berlin is even more compact in terms of time covered. It begins on New Year's Day 1945, and ends with the surrender of Germany in early May. It is a little less concentrated in terms of space, as the battle for Berlin itself was actually quite short. The battle was really mostly fought outside the city, in the immediate months preceeding it, and the book reflects that.
In both there is tremendous attention to little details, and a real sense of atmosphere is evoked. Likewise the various historical figures are sculpted against these epic tableux. The Spanish Civil War cannot compete. But then, it is a slightly different work. A great overview, decent history, but not at that exceptional level that Beevor has achieved elsewhere.
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